Herricks School Board candidate Jonai Singh had the support of all the incumbent school board members in her recent race, but the weight of that support may have been more of a millstone than a positive force propelling her election effort.
“Some people thought it was like a big conspiracy,” said board President Christine Turner, who ran unopposed for her seat with Singh as her running mate. “People think it was like they didn’t think the board should pick the candidate.”
Community activist Jim Gounaris defeated Singh by an 800-vote plurality in the election, 2,422 votes to 1,607 votes. His victory over Singh, who is co-president of the Herrick Council of the PTAs was viewed as a slight upset by many observers.
Turner said the alliance between Singh and herself was a natural one, since the two had worked together while Singh in her role with the Herricks PTA.. Turner said she was aware that Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar had decided to not run for re-election to his seat on the Herricks School Board, and suggested to Singh that she should consider running for the seat.
“She’s familiar with things. She cares about the kids,” Turner said.
Turner said that she was aware that a comment Singh had made in a Williston Times story about illegal rentals in the Herricks district had been taken out of context during the campaign. Singh had said she the community needed to accept the fact that some ethnic groups live in legitimate extended family situations.
“It wasn’t that she didn’t care about [illegal rentals],” Turner said. “She wasn’t condoning 95 people living together. But that’s politics. People put their own spin on it. I personally don’t think political elections like this bring out the best in people,” Turner.
At last week’s board meeting Singh said she thought she had been unjustly maligned in e-mails during the campaign by people opposed to her election.
“It was defamation,” Singh said.
She has declined to specify the nature of the comments made about her, or the sources. And her final comment on the campaign this week was a conciliatory one.
“I congratulate Mr. Gounaris on his victory and wish him well. I thank all who supported me during the campaign for their encouragement and hard work,” Singh said.
Gounaris said there was nothing negative about the campaign he had run.
“I didn’t use that quote in [campaign] communications. My campaign focused on families living in illegal houses and what we could do about it,” Gounaris said, adding that community members found the practice of extended families living together “unfair to everyone else.”
He said having one’s parents live in the same house was acceptable, but he didn’t think brothers and sisters and their children living in the same house was another matter.
“I understand it, and that may be acceptable in other countries and other areas,” he said.
Gounaris said he had been upset about the school board members endorsing Singh because it implied that he lacked the same qualities they extolled in her.
“That hurt me deeply,” Gounaris said.
But Gounaris said he wasn’t certain whether the board members’ endorsement of Singh had any impact in the end.
“I’m not sure if it worked against her. I’m not just sure it helped her,” Gounaris said, noting that he had drawn more votes than any Herricks school board candidate in recent history.
One source said a letter from a prominent member of the Indo US Herricks Community organization endorsing him also had a significant impact on voters in that segment of the community.
Ehrbar, who endorsed Singh as an “independent voice” for the community, noted that individual members of the board – not the board as a whole – had endorsed Singh.
“I supported Jonai and I was hoping for her to win the election. Now that the race is over, my congratulations go out to Jim in this endeavor,” Ehrbar said.
He said he had not seen any negatively cast e-mails during the campaign.
Gounaris said that the message his campaign had sought to communicate for what he called “good positive change” in the school district had resonated with the voters.
“A lot of the people felt that the board has become distant from the community,” Gounaris said. “We wanted a little more transparency between the SB and the entire Herricks community.”
